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Ethnic Albanians Suffer Under Yugoslav Rule

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''Blood Will Have Blood; It's the Code of the Clans'' (news article, Nov. 10) discusses the tensions that exist in the autonomous region of Kosovo in Yugoslavia as a byproduct of extremist Albanian nationalism. However, the article seems to have confused cause and effect. It is, in fact, extremism that is the byproduct of severe economic and political repression. Sporadic acts of violence by Albanians against Serbians are a symptom of a disease - not the disease itself.

The Kosovo issue seems to have been approached as if it were separate and apart from the rest of Yugoslavia. Looking at Kosovo in the microcosm, the Albanians (who constitute 85 percent of the population in this region) are portrayed as a powerful and oppressive majority. The macro-reality is that it is the Serbians who constitute the most populous and powerful ethnic group in Yugoslavia while the Albanians are a powerless minority.

The fact is that Albanians in Yugoslavia have been repressed economically and denied equal political representation. The autonomous province of Kosovo, where the majority of Albanians reside, is the most economically depressed region of Yugoslavia. The average per capita income of an Albanian family there is $750, approximately 27 percent of the average per capita income in Yugoslavia. Unemployment in Kosovo is in excess of 35 percent. Lack of economic opportunity plagues a region with the highest birth rate in the country.

In political terms, Kosovo remains for the foreseeable future an autonomous province of the republic of Serbia despite Albanian protest for republic status. The Albanians are the only major ethnic group denied a republic of their own, and as such do not share an equal voice in the decision-making process of the nation.

Finally, the unsubstantiated assertion that the nation of Albania is an artificial creation of the Great Powers defies reality. Albania is almost entirely homogeneous, 97 percent, and was so at the time of its creation. Furthermore, the Albanians, descendants of the ancient Illyrians, are an indigenous people, and have been in the Balkans since before recorded history. The Slavic peoples did not arrive in the Balkans until the seventh century A.D.

If one were to categorize a country as an artificial concoction, which is not my aim, perhaps Yugoslavia, a conglomeration of various hostile ethnic groups, would more readily fit that bill. DONALD LEKA Bldwin, L.I., Nov. 13, 1987

A version of this letter appears in print on November 25, 1987, on Page A00026 of the National edition with the headline: Ethnic Albanians Suffer Under Yugoslav Rule. Today's Paper|Subscribe